Walcott (Don't You Wanna Get Out of Cape Cod Tonight?)
by LoverBoi2000
Summary: When, one summer, Annabeth Chase met her best friend's older cousin, she wasn't sure how it ended up like this. Not that she was complaining. / Multiple One-Shots of Percy and Annabeth's life as a preppy New England/Mid-Atlantic couple. / Chapter 1: He was, per usual, late. He arrived with Dunkin Donuts, however, so it might be okay.
1. 1: Pick Up

**Disclaimer: I do not own.**

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The sweet smell of fall greeted her as she walked out of her dorm, clothed only in her boyfriend's Dartmouth sweatshirt and her tight blue jeans. Her fingers fiddled with the ends of the sleeves, tugging them uncertainly, as if they could cause an explosion at any moment. Lawrenceville was getting colder now, and so she needed all the warmth she could get. Not too cold to where she would have to break out any true Winter gear, but cold enough that she could shamelessly wear his sweatshirt. Of course, any other point in the year she wore it as often as the weather permitted. Now she just had an excuse to wear it.

It still smelled like him, Annabeth realized with great joy. Usually after two weeks of heavy wear her boyfriend's sweatshirt no longer smelled like him. His particular mix of ocean and warm chocolate chip cookies was stained into the very fabric of the crewneck. In order to maintain the scent, they rotated around three or four different sweatshirts of his. He'd wear one for about two weeks before sending it to her.

Since they could only keep in touch over social media, being able to smell her boyfriend was a huge comfort. His scent would hug her, giving her a ghost of his arms around her stomach and his chest pressed against her back. School for both of them had been tough, with him being a sophomore in college and her a senior in High School. College apps had hit her hard, and as much as he tried to be, him not being there for her was a major test of her will. She hadn't seen him since her Fall Break, over two weeks ago, when she had gone to DC with him for a long weekend.

He was a drug, unfortunately, so being away from him caused severe withdrawals. The sweaters helped, but they were only a temporary substitute. Facetiming, texting, snapchats – all were temporary substitutes as well that only fueled her addiction to the real thing.

Her phone buzzed in her back pocket. Her hand reached down to slide it out. Her thumb pressed against the power button that laid on the side of the phone.

A white notification blurred the blue background. The white numbers at the top of the phone told her it was a little past ten. He was late. And the notification was just another of the relentless news alerts she got, innumerable in quantity. "Ugh…"

She and Percy had gotten together in the summer before his first year at Dartmouth, her high school junior summer. He was her best friend's older cousin, and they had bonded over a summer of sun and laughs on rocky Maine beaches and wooden boat decks. He dressed preppy, an impeccable sense of taste that _had _to be inherited from his mother, because his father's favorite clothing article was any Hawaiian shirt.

She had fallen for him hard over their summer in New England. Never, not once in that fateful month, did she think he reciprocated. How could he have? But on her sixteenth birthday he had professed that he did, indeed, feel that same burning in his heart when he was around her (and they totally didn't fuck on his boat afterwards… that would be ridiculous, really). Now, almost a year-and-a-half later, the memory of his words that night filled her with intense, burning happiness.

That happiness was, however, conflicting with anger due to the fact that he was late _and_ had neglected to tell her why. She wasn't surprised by his tardiness, for her boyfriend was notoriously always a minute or two too late.

Her angry legs walked over to her favorite tree on the quad. He should at the very least have told her he would be late. He knew she hated that about him, the one thing that irked her to death. He had tried, for about a month, to be timelier, but it soon became apparent that nothing could actually make Percy arrive on time. It was as if he was predetermined to be late to everything.

Her phone buzzed once more to break her out of her ire. This time the alert that blurred the background was a short text from her boyfriend.

_Percy: trble at dnkn, b thr soon _❤️

Her eyes rolled. Exhibit number ten-thousand, six-hundred, and four. No matter how hard he tried, Percy was always late. Annabeth wondered if it was one of Newton's laws. She cleared the alerts, then stared at the background that hid below. A backdrop of a beautifully blue sky, empty of clouds, full of sun, led to a lone figure working the rigging of his boat. His tan muscles flexed, energetic, outlining every differentiation. His arms were raised to the sky; this had the dual effect of showing off his lean biceps _and _his bulging shoulder muscles. A pair of dark blue board chubbies sat just below the hard lower-back muscles. They covered up a divine ass that was any girl's dream. Although she could only see the back of his tousled dark hair, so easily messed by the seawinds, and had no view of face, it was the perfect background.

It reminded her of how much she loved to lay her face on his muscled back and listen to his heartbeat from behind. Her hands would slip around to his waist and stomach, tracing the definition on his abs. And then, slowly, to labored moans, her hands would sneak down farther, a little farther, past the V that connected his abs to his groin, then she'd slip her hands around his hardness and –

She took a breath as labored as his was in her day-dream.

_Bad_.

Curse him for his ability to take her from being aggravated with him to fantasizing about him within the span of a minute.

With an exaggerated sigh, she sat herself down on the quad, back leaned up against her favorite tree. She put her phone down, deciding to take in the beauty of fall instead. She sat, watching the red, yellow, and orange lollipop trees shed their leaves like her lab shed his hair on a hot day. She sat, waiting for him to show up, in his old Volvo wagon, with its adorable wood paneling, old paint, and cloth seats. She sat, remembering so many good memories of being in that car. He was picking her up and they were going to drive down to Charlottesville for Thanksgiving with her family.

And then? She wasn't sure. He had an extremely long break, six weeks in total. Perhaps he would stay in the city and come to see her over weekends. Yes, that sounded quite nice.

"Whatcha watching for, Bethie?" In response, the blonde ran her hand through her curls and sighed. Isabel was a part of her friend group, but the two never really got along, communicating more through mutual friendships.

"Nothing of your concern."

"Wow, alright. I was just being a good friend and making sure you weren't sitting out here all alone!" Isabel's bullshit was easier to smell than literal bullshit. It seemed as though she was in one of her more antagonistic moods. The two girls, besides being in the same friendship circle, also competed for top spots in her class. It brought Annabeth immense joy to tell Isabel that that BC test she had gotten a 98 on? Yeah, she spent fifteen minutes reviewing before taking it.

Okay, so maybe she had taken a Calc 1&2 course over the summer at Princeton, and had learned Calculus on her own with Khan academy at the age of fifteen, and was currently taking multivariable calculus and number theory online, so she knew a lot of the material already…

No matter. The point was, Annabeth's intellect was off the charts while Isabel had to grind for every point above an 85. It brought a smirk to her face just to think about it.

"Okay, Isabel," she replied, trying to sound bored, but failing miserably. The gloating she was doing in her head seemed to flood out of her tongue.

"So….?" Isabel began to question the blonde. Annabeth felt like Diogenes right now, except comparing Isabel to Alexander was a gross mischaracterization. "Are you going somewhere for…" her voice trailed off.

"Shit," Isabel muttered, finding her voice again. Her tone, however, was breathy, as though she had either been hit by a bus or ran a marathon. Annabeth, who had moved her gaze to her shoelaces that were far more interesting than Isabel, immediately knew what Isabel was seeing. Or at least had an inkling of an idea.

"You're blocking my view." Annabeth channeled her inner Diogenes, trying to see if her sheer force of will could move this bitch out of the way without having to resort to violence.

Surprisingly, it worked. Apparently, whatever had captivated Isabel had sent her into a kind of trance. It had to be Percy then. Nothing else on this gods-forsaken campus was half as gorgeous as him.

Isabel stepped aside.

It was Percy, in his seemingly endless beauty, wearing dark blue khakis and a knitted off-white sweater over a light blue oxford shirt. And was he…?

Today, his face, defined by sharp jawlines and cheekbones, was framed in rounded turtle shell glasses. Goddamn bastard. Did he know what his body did to the straight women and gay men everywhere? A smile stretched out his lips as he caught sight of her. His face lit up, powered by happiness, all due to _her_. She loved the feeling that caused inside of her.

Annabeth smiled back, overjoyed she could see him again. She wanted to be sly, teasing, cheeky. But she hadn't seen him for so long she couldn't contain herself. Not bothering to brush off the leaves or the dirt that stuck to her thighs and butt, she stood. Her legs took her straight into his arms. They pushed off the ground, causing her to leap onto him. Even Percy's strong body wasn't prepared for the sudden force, and so he staggered back a few feet. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, savoring his smell with deep breaths. She took her dosage straight from the source.

"I missed you." Her voice was smaller than she wanted it to be, but she felt so damn comfortable in his arms right now she couldn't care what she sounded like. She nuzzled her head into his neck, trying to bury her face on his shoulder forever.

"I missed you as well baby girl." His arms squeezed her tightly against him, her legs doing the rest of the work, wrapped around his waist. He pressed a light kiss to her forehead.

Percy read her so well, knowing what she needed possibly even before she did. He had been so attentive to her that first summer that by the end of it he knew her better than she ever knew herself. So, he knew when she needed her space, when she needed to be held, when she needed to rant, when she needed to blow off steam fucking or working out, when she needed to be coddled and spoiled, when she needed to be strong and badass.

He never blamed her for being a needy little bitch, only gave and gave and gave. He understood her. It's why he was the best.

He laughed happily when she dug her fingers into his hair; she planted a kiss against his neck. She smiled, in a blissful haze, and pulled back. Her fingers in his hair anchored her. They leaned into each other, his hands acting as a shelf under her ass and thighs. She felt him squeeze her derriere; their lips caught each other. She tilted her face to deepen the kiss, her tongue licking his bottom lip, begging for access.

The moment he gaze it to her though, and her tongue breached the threshold of his mouth, she burst out in laughter. It was a bit awkward at first when her tongue was in his mouth, but after a little bit of sputters she disentangled their lips. He probably thought her more insane than he already did, but she couldn't care. She had just realized that she was doing this in front of Isabel.

"Beth?" Percy's tone was concerned, his grip on her ass lightened considerable. No, that wouldn't do. She gripped his waist with her strong legs, pulling him back in.

"Shut and kiss me."

He complied without having to be told twice. His fingers returned to gripping her rear, making her melt into his mouth as their tongues battled. Too much PDA? Perhaps, yet she couldn't bring herself to care.

His mouth tasted like Dunkin coffee; his body smelled like pine, a new scent. The way his mouth moved on hers – the way it moved all over her body – was heaven.

When they finally broke away, panting slightly, she was set down gently on soft grass. Her feet touched the ground; her legs went slightly wobbly.

"You've got to go get my bags, strong man," she joked after recovering her breath, punching his bicep. He just sighed, shaking his head.

"You just want to use me as a pack animal."

"Mmmm."

Percy turned his head to find that they had had a spectator the whole time. When he recognized her from Instagram and Snapchat and all of Annabeth's long night-time rants, his eyes narrowed for only a slight second. They returned to normal, and Annabeth cocked her head, leaning back against his chest. His arms found their place on her stomach. Their hands intertwined above her belly button.

"Hey, you're Isabel, right?"

Annabeth tried her best to not laugh at the expression on Isabel's face. It was as though she had been visited by an existential being, of which Percy was most certainly not (though his looks got him close). Her eyes were wide open, showcasing much of the whites of her (brown? hazel?) eyes. Her mouth was stuck in a slightly open position, an oblong 'O'.

"Uh…" Isabel didn't seem so sure of anything now, and it made Annabeth's mind take a victory lap. "I, um, yeah."

"I'm Percy." Her overly polite boyfriend had one of his hands abandon hers, as it marched to greet Isabel's. The Salutatorian of Annabeth's class couldn't do much but blush and stumble over her words as Annabeth's boyfriend shook her hand. Annabeth could tell that their hands left each other's grip far too soon for Isabel's taste. "Annabeth's told me about you a few times."

"Oh." Annabeth could feel Isabel's mind working overtime, heating up like a computer, trying to figure out just what foul lies Annabeth had fed her boyfriend. "Good things, I hope."

Her words were as uneven as a poorly founded house.

"Of course." Even from below, Annabeth could tell that Percy was giving Isabel a blindingly white smile right now. "She loves how you push her to put in effort. After all," he peeled away from Isabel's view to press a kiss to her forehead, "I think it'd be unfair if Annabeth got to put in no effort whatsoever to remain number one."

Boom.

Isabel's mouth hung open even further, before she turned, huffed, and stormed off. Annabeth watched her retreating figure with a huge smirk that didn't once threaten to run off. She spun around in her boyfriend's arms.

"Go grab my shit."

"I really mean very little to you, don't I?"

"You mean," she leaned up and planted a kiss on his chin. "A strong boy who can move heavy shit."

"I'm a man."

"Go grab my shit."

Annabeth watched her boyfriend's ass bulge against his tightish pants as he walked over to move her stuff.

"There's a chocolate donut and a large coffee in the car!" He called out.

Gods she loved him.

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**I decided to rewrite this because GoT/aSoIaF fanfics have improved my writing exponentially. If you aren't a fan of the show, watch it, then read those fanfics. They are absolutely incredible.**

**A Song for Dragons? 850 pages. That dude writes sins not tragedies.**

**Also, they're going to Dartmouth. Annabeth is basically me if I was a girl, so she's coming with me to be a 23. I hope I publish a lot more in college, but we'll see. I want to make this story more lifelike. Hitchcock said that drama was life with the dull bits cut out. I want this to be life. Drama and dull bits both. So if I post in college, expect long, rambling chapters that may seem boring but really are just deep character dives and whatnot.**

**Striving to provide Southern Hospitality the whole world over.**

**LoverBoi (yes I'm a guy)**


	2. 2: Opinions

Their feet are propped up on the coffee table, sipping Sunday espressos together. A computer screen is being scrolled down, images flying by of other people's Spring Break. Having spent her Spring Break looking at all the colleges she was accepted to, Claire finds that she gets more and more aggravated with her friends' photos. Hell, she hadn't even gone on anyone's stories, trying to avoid the perfection it probably is.

"Where's Isabelle going again?"

"Harvard, c'mon mom, we've gone through this before."

"Don't give me that tone," her mom flicks her arm. "I don't have all day to chat gossip. I actually have work."

"Yes, yes…" Claire looks at the caption on Isabelle's Bahamas post.

'Perfect Spring Break. Ingredients: Bahamas, babes, bikinis, and beers!'

"Are you upset you didn't go?" Claire's mother glances over the mass of girls in every photo, all in different bikinis in every pic, drinking more beer than Claire had ever touched.

"I mean, sort of. But we all agreed to spend time together over the summer, so I guess it's okay."

"I don't see Annabeth there."

"No, she didn't go."

"Really? I thought she would've loved to go and upstage Isabelle."

Claire rolls her eyes. Her mother doesn't like Annabeth, but for the stupidest reasons possible. Her mother hates Annabeth's relationship. Seriously, that's it. Everything Annabeth does is colored in her mother's eyes by the fact that she is dating a guy three years her elder, who is also in college.

Does Claire find it a bit weird? Sure, it is a bit odd that Annabeth spent a lot of her vacations with him instead of with her friends, that he is willing to pick her up from school, that he flew them down to New Orleans for President's Day weekend, that they sleep together when they stay together (like, with their parents' consent) -- okay, so yes, maybe a lot about their relationships is weird. But Percy is a nice guy, though he seems far too outgoing for Annabeth at times, but for the most part seems perfect for her. Claire won't be too surprised at this point if they stay together till their graves.

In Claire's eyes, all of this is cute and romantic, if at least somewhat weird. To her mother, however, it is excessive. They are stupid kids, she would say, and Annabeth is squandering herself by spending so much time with him. To her mother, Annabeth should focus more on the here and now, and school and athletics rather than a boy. (Why do you care? Claire asks in her head, though she does not dare voice those thoughts.) The Holy Grail of disapproval comes when Annabeth decides to attend Dartmouth, Percy's school, over Stanford or Harvard or MIT.

There, Claire isn't sure whether or not she agrees with her mother. She knows Annabeth isn't a fan of city schools, or even universities, so she doubts her decision to go to Dartmouth was only because of Percy, but Claire also doubted he was disregarded from the decision process. Whatever though, Claire thinks, let her do her. Wasn't like it was a terrible school.

"No, she and Percy were in Colorado."

"Ah, of course."

Sighing, Claire says: "I assume that you want to see their accounts?"

"Wouldn't mind it," her mother replies, her words sounding more like she truly means 'Yes, yes, yes! Very much yes!'

Claire puts in the username for Annabeth first. WiseGirl_2000 is a public account, because apparently at one point managing all of the follow requests got to be too much. Understandable, considering both she and her boyfriend have over ten-thousand followers at this point. 'The trials of being gorgeous,' Claire had replied when Annabeth told her she was going public, as if she was some new IPO.

Annabeth posts a lot, with over a hundred posts since starting her account two years ago. Mostly it is just political or nerdy stuff, but every time she goes somewhere with Percy, she'll post a whole fucking album of their perfect lives. Their Colorado album is, well, as stunning as the rest of the page.

'Percy, you want to add some coffee to your milk?' Reads the caption of the album.

The first picture is of Percy, tagged, sitting at a coffee shop, in a booth seat, holding his coffee. Or, milk, really. The usual dark tan color of coffee is diluted to the point that it truly looked like cream. Disgusting, Claire thinks. The picture doesn't include Annabeth's coffee, but Claire doesn't doubt it is as disgusting: thoroughly black, devoid of sugar and milk. Seriously, what has happened to drinking regular coffee with a regular amount of milk and sugar?

"He is extremely attractive," her mother admits. If anything, her mother understates it. In the photo, Annabeth's boyfriend is wearing a big, bulky Canada Goose jacket, having been unzipped to reveal layers of other cold weather skiing gear. His hair is underneath a green-and-white beanie, but a few strands stick out. Even after being in New Hampshire and Colorado for so long, his hair is the usual tan color it had been since Claire met him. Once Claire wondered if it was fake, but it looks too natural to be fake. His cheekbones are defined, but not overly so. A light bit of stubble has formed on his jaw, which rests below his beautiful, white teeth. Someone had once compared him to a Hemsworth, which Claire finds very true. She had, on many occasions, masturbated to all of their faces and bodies, so Percy at least has that going for him.

Claire clicks to the left, looking at the next photo.

It's a selfie, of the two of them on the lift. The sky is bright blue behind them, the only white is the snow beneath them. They have their goggles on, both giving thumbs up. Pretty generic skiing photo, in Claire's opinion.

The next photo is more them -- perfect and goofy at the same time. Annabeth seems to be frowning, but Percy has his fingers in the ends of her mouth, pulling her lips into a smile. At the same time, he is truly smiling as he placed a kiss onto her cheek. The tag that hovered over Percy was entitled 'a lil fuckboy'.

"What is a fuckboy?"

"Uh, someone who is…" Claire struggles in her search for an explanation. "Like a man whore, but also a cocky one."

"Huh."

"A frat boy," Claire tries to continue to explain.

"He's in a frat, yes?" How does her mother, who had so often failed to remember simple things like where Isabelle was going, remember so much about Percy and Annabeth? Anger, probably.

"You are not joining a sorority," her mother gives out an off-handed comment.

"I'm not?"

"No."

"Alright then."

Claire clicks on the next picture. A blush spreads over her cheeks as she surveys the contents. In a steamy sauna, someone (Claire assumed Annabeth) has snapped a photo of Percy in just towel, his hard, chiseled body glistening with liquified steam. The towel only goes mid-thigh, proving again (what Claire had already known from other photos of Percy in a speedo) that his body is just naturally tan. Every single ab, oblique, and every other possible muscle is defined, a Greek dedication to the physical body. Yeah, he is attractive.

"That's a bit raunchy, don't you think?" Claire is forced to wrench her head away from Percy's apparently raunchy body to respond to her mother. The sight of his hard body, illuminated by the way the light reflects off the steam pellets is stuck in her mind, and apparently her mother's eyes too. The woman who had raised her solo for eighteen years has her eyes glued to the screen.

"I mean… maybe?"

Her mother just hums in response, her go to action when Claire says something that she disagrees with yet doesn't feel obligated to speak against it. A sigh escapes Claire's lips, her eyes turning back to the photo.

"Sure, it's too raunchy for her to be posting," Claire replies, her eyes rolling.

"I never said that," her mother says as she checks her fingernails, acting as if she had not just been shamelessly staring at Percy's far-younger body.

Knowing that saying anything more could be dangerous, Claire decides it'll be best to just click on the next photo. It's the final one in the album. The picture contains two pairs of feet and two pairs of legs. The legs are all touching, covered in matching grey sweatpants. On the right pair of legs, on the right hip, a 'D crew' logo jumps out of the monotony of storm-cloud grey. On both laps, dual mugs of what looks to be either a hot mocha or hot cocoa let out steam. The legs form orthogonals to a large picture window. The picture framed by the square pane of glass is a symphony of blues, reds, and yellows. Purples, oranges, dark blues, and a cloudless sky. A sunset.

"That's cute," her mother comments. She sounds like she struggled with even admitting that.

"Yeah, I guess." Claire scrolls through the rest of Annabeth's posts, zooming past political and protest posts, inspecting a few of the albums she's seen a dozen times again. Then, realizing that she hasn't yet liked the most recent post, Claire pulls the screen back to the top. A quick click on the mousetrack signifies that she liked the post. A heart, once outlined in black and hollow in the middle, fills with red.

"I thought you thought that they were cute?"

"They are…" Claire doesn't know how to explain what she's feeling, but this set of posts makes her feel a bit weird about Annabeth and Percy. "Just, doesn't it seem too fake? Too perfect to be true?"

"Isn't that what social media is?"

"Fake?"

"Manufactured. How many tries do you think they took before those photos turned out to be as good as they look?"

"Knowing them, once," Claire grumbled. She clicks back to the first photo in the album, then clicks on Percy(J), deciding to review his page.

"But seriously, are they that perfect in real life? Is their snapchat page as perfect as their instagram page?"

"There is no such thing as a snapchat page, mom."

"Whatever, their book or whatever it is."

"Story?"

"Yeah, whatever. Is it as perfect as their instagram?"

"Actually, yes."

"Huh."

"Yup, at least Annabeth is nice to me. If she wasn't I don't think I could stand her."

"She's sorta a bitch, yes?"

Claire looks over the home screen of Percy's account, mostly filled with pictures of him and Annabeth, or him and his dog, or him and his rowing team. A few pictures of his mom or of Dartmouth's campus appear too. Claire knows already which posts are the most liked -- the shirtless ones, naturally.

"I don't think she's a bitch… just eager to get out of high school. We've gotten along well because of that." Claire likes this, being able to chat with her mother. Things like this rarely happen due to her mother's busy work schedule. Claire's father had died when she was young, leaving Claire's mother to work to raise her daughter by herself. Left without a degree, she had used the life insurance money to support her readmission first into college, then into law school. By the time Claire was in middle school, her mother had risen to be a partner in her firm, and now was the head of their court lawyers' group. Her mother is her greatest inspiration. She had had to fight so hard to get Claire ahead, and Claire is determined to prove to her mother that she had not sacrificed in vain.

Claire had worked hard, pushing to get into all of her top schools after not getting in anywhere early. It had been rough, seeing her friends get in to their dream schools in December and then not giving any shits about exams. They had partied like crazy Spring term, while Claire was still grinding like crazy to get a good enough report card to send to schools before the regular decision. Throughout that time it was Annabeth who was there for Claire, even though the other girl had gotten into her top choice early. Annabeth was understanding enough, as much as a super genius could be understanding. Annabeth was a bit odd, but had been a good friend to Claire in her darkest moments, for which she would be forever grateful.

Was Annabeth a bitch though?

"She's sassy and sarcastic, I won't disagree with that. And there's a fine line between those two and bitchiness, so she crosses it every now and then. Not regularly, but she crosses it."

"Always was ambivalent about her."

"I know, we've talked about it."

"Have we?"

"Yes, mom."

"Don't use that tone on me, young lady."

"Sorry."


	3. 3: Prospies

**I do not own.**

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Her ass ached after having sat on that bus for far too long. The felt seat, it seemed, had sat on her ass instead of the opposite. When she had finally stood up, she wasn't sure she could. She regretted ever taking that stupid bus. A plane from the city would've been better.

Okay, that was an exaggeration. Her ass didn't hurt _that _badly, and she had met a few good friends along the way. She had taken the bus up with Percy's cousin, Jason, who was at boarding school in California. One girl, Piper, was particularly nice. Jason liked her even more than Annabeth, having taken to gazing at her choppy hair the whole bus ride.

Unfortunately for the blonde, Piper seemed to have a crush on the cocky jock at the front of the bus, if the not-so-sneaky glances she was sending towards the front were anything to go off of. Annabeth only smirked as both daydreamed about their respective crushes. Oh, love triangles. So much fun.

Both of them had been shocked to learn, an hour into the bus ride, that Annabeth already had a boyfriend; both had had a further shock when they realized he was a '21. Perhaps rightly so, neither had expected Annabeth to be that type of girl.

_"I'm not any type of girl," _was her adamant response.

"Gods," she heard Piper's voice say from behind. "I hate driving."

"You weren't even driving," Annabeth retorted.

"Fine, riding." The eye-roll that Piper was now famous for could be heard in her indignant response. Annabeth liked the spunk the girl had in her, a spunk that had taken a while for Annabeth to develop herself.

"So you like to be on the bottom?"

"Oh, shut up, would you?"

Annabeth just cackled maniacally. Piper gave her a stink eye.

The trip of '23s waddled their way down the aisle. Annabeth found the spot where she had left her backpack in the overhead. With a quick movement of her arm, she yanked the backpack so that it slid onto her shoulder. The weight felt comfortable, reminding her of the joy of going to classes she enjoyed, of good times with the few friends she had at Lawrenceville.

The nostalgia of all that made her sad; excitement for the future made her guilt decline.

The air in Hanover was far cooler than the sweaty air of a bus that had ferried forty-or-so teenagers three hours. It was dry and crisp, refreshing. The air rushed into the bus through the open door, fighting its way past the muggy air inside. The smell of pines it carried reminded her so forcefully of Percy it was like a punch in the gut.

Slowly, they made their way to the front of the bus and down the steps. They breached the threshold to arrive in a world blanketed by a starry night sky. In front of them, and to their left, some construction was being done on the theater. To their right, the cute hotel.

As she moved to grab her bags from underneath the bus, she heard a very familiar voice calling her name.

"Annabeth! Wise Girl! Bird Brain! Owl Feces!"

She stole an eye roll from Piper. He was ridiculous, truly. But still, she could not stop the smile that stretched her lips apart. His posh British accent had calmed down a bit now that he was in the States, but it was still maddeningly sexy. And his crazy nicknames for her were so heart-warming; she loved knowing she still had this kind of effect on him. That she had helped him be happier. Considering everything he had done for her, he deserved it. She was just grateful she was the one who had done it.

She picked up her duffle from the concrete and turned past the curious gazes of her two new friends. Walking over from the entrance of the Hop was her boyfriend, his old roommate Dakota, and Dakota's girlfriend, Gwen.

"Hey crabass," she retorted. The dueling yells seemed to annoy some of her former busmates and prospective future classmates. She honestly could care less. Pushing past her two newfound friends, she fell right into her unfairly attractive boyfriend's arms.

His dense muscle encircled the lean muscles that already hugged her back. Her soft chest pressed against his broader, harder one. The top of her head received a kiss from his soft lips, which she assumed were also somewhat chapped. He never was great at applying chapstick regularly.

He held her tightly, swaying back and forth for a little bit. He had spent Spring Break training in Cali and thus hadn't seen her since Christmas and New Year's. She missed him just as much, if not more than he had. After all, he had far better things to do here than she had.

That sounded bitchy. It wasn't meant that way. Well, okay so it was. But not in _that _way. All Annabeth meant was that she was bored with high school.

He broke them apart slightly. As if he understood she was overthinking, he leaned down to press a quick and chaste kiss to her lips.

His lips were indeed chapped.

When he tried to break apart this time, she wasn't having it. She wanted, needed more. Her hands, slightly callused from her love of working out, spread out into his soft, raven locks. She pressed her far less chapped lips up against his, allowing her head to tilt to the side to get a better angle.

Their lips danced as such for possibly a minute, but she doubted it was that long. They were forced apart by a cough she assumed was from Dakota.

Annabeth could only give Percy's slightly dazed expression a smirk.

_He better know what it means to have me up here now._

"She your prospie?"

Annabeth turned to glare at her boyfriend's roommate. He looked like he had just gotten off the slopes, which he might've. Dakota was extremely good at skiing, but the man was not committed. Annabeth had heard that he was once offered a place on the National team but turned it down due to "time commitments". He looked like the stereotypical Coloradoan.

Long brown hair, still cut in that skater-boy look she had thought died out long ago, framed a face that held a nose-ring and slightly bloodshot eyes. He wore an oversized winter jacket and baggy sweatpants - Annabeth was surprised he didn't wear his signature beanie.

"Fuck off," Percy replied for her. A friendly sense of annoyance snuck into his words.

"Yeah, I ain't a prospie. I'm a commit..." The word died out on her tongue. She had no clue what they called her.

"A committee?" Gwen finished her statement for her, but even on different lips the nickname didn't sound right.

"How about we stick with 23?"

Gwen bobbed her short, dirty-blonde hair in agreement. "Yeah, I'll agree to that. But you have some prospies with you, right?"

Annabeth nodded, turning her body to showcase her newfound friends. As she did so, Percy, who had, until that point, had his hand resting on her waist and his arm wrapped around her back moved off of her. He went up to greet his cousin with a proper bro-hug.

As her boyfriend did so, she shook both her host's hand and her host's boyfriend's hand.

"Thank you so much for hosting me, Gwen!"

The older blonde waved it off with an indifferent hand and a happy smile. "I'm more than glad to host you, girl! You're gonna love it!"

Annabeth smiled, breaking away from the hug Gwen had initiated.

"I'm super pumped!" Annabeth craned her head to find Piper standing awkwardly in the background as Jason and Percy greeted while Annabeth greeted her host. "Piper, com'ere!"

The Native American girl slipped herself past the chatting cousins to make her way to Annabeth. "Hi! I'm Piper!"

"Hi! I'm Gwen! Do you know where your host is?"

Piper just shook her head. "She said that she would be here soon."

"Do you know her name?"

"Uh, Rachel Dare?"

Gwen and Dakota both shrugged their shoulders. "Don't know her. Gotta be honest with you, don't know too many 22s."

Piper only nodded in confirmation. She looked a lot more uncomfortable here than she had on the bus. It confused Annabeth, but she only filed the thought away for another time.

"So, you're an actual prospie? Or a 23?"

Piper grabbed one arm with the other, forming a '4' with her arms. "Um, a prospie."

"Where else are you looking at?" continued Dakota, trying his best to be an engaging communicator, not just a raging pot-head.

As much as her thoughts might suggest otherwise, Annabeth quite liked Dakota. While he was a raging pot-head, he was also really chill (probably a consequence of being a raging pot-head) and a great philosopher (further filling all the requirements of being a stereotypical Coloradoan: skiing, pot-head).

Before Piper could give him an answer, however, a feminine voice rang out in the cold night. "Piper McLean? Piper McLean?"

Her new friend turned to find the source of the noise, and Annabeth followed her lead. Gliding up to them was a red-haired girl of middling height, wearing light-colored leggings and a green Dartmouth sweatshirt. Her hands were stuffed into her pockets, her feet into thick shoes that, Annabeth realized, were actually wheelies.

"Uh, here," the suddenly shy Native American girl replied. Her hand stood alone in the dark of the night, awkward in its solitude.

Her host, Rachel with the wheelies, glid (glided? Annabeth was still unsure) into a stop in front of their group. She took her hands out of her sweatshirt, smiling brightly at the prospie.

"Hi! Sorry I'm late, I was just studying at the library and I totally lost track of time!"

Piper smiled, gripping the ends of her long-sleeved shirt with her fingers. More observations Annabeth filed away for later.

"It's okay, we just got in."

Rachel breathed what Annabeth assumed was a sigh of relief. Then, with surprising speed, she jumped her arms around Piper and gave her a hug. The younger girl seemed, at least from the back, absolutely petrified for a moment before relaxing. It seemed the moment Piper relaxed, Rachel pulled away.

"So, prospie, where are you from?"

"LA, Hollywood."

"That's so cool! I'm from Lake Tahoe, so North, but still Cali!"

"Really?"

Annabeth watched with a great amount of happiness as Piper fell into a more comfortable conversation with her host. Percy and Jason, the latter of whom was sneaking glances at Piper, walked over to where Annabeth stood. She gave him a look out of the corner of her eye. Her hand found Percy's.

"Hey guys, as Annabeth already knows, this is my cousin Jason, he's a prospie too."

Jason shook hands with Dakota and Gwen, a pleasant smile on his face, but a smile that nonetheless read slight discomfort. It was understandable, after all, both he and Piper were not as comfortable with Dakota and Gwen as she was. Annabeth could only hope the two duos would get close. Pre-established friendships were good to have.

"Where else are you looking?" Questioned Gwen, parroting Dakota's earlier question.

"I got into Stanford, Harvard, and Yale too."

Dakota just whistled. "Damn son."

Jason, to his credit, began to rub the back of his hair; in a better light Annabeth might've been able to discern a blush. It was impressive, Annabeth herself could admit. She had thought for a long time about applying to any and all of those schools. Till she came here. Thinking "love at first sight" to be bullshit, even after meeting Percy, Annabeth did not expect to like Dartmouth. She hadn't clicked with any of her other schools. She toured the school in November, in the middle of Autumn — in a blizzard.

But the tour had been incredible, and she fell in love with the school the moment she stepped onto the campus. She applied early and never looked back.

Her parents tried to dissuade her from applying here early. They both had gone to Harvard and wanted to start building a family legacy there. They didn't care that she had been miserable on that tour, nor that she promised to go there for grad school. They both — and they were not alone in making this argument — had insisted that the only reason she wanted to go to Dartmouth was for Percy. Yes, she wanted Percy for two years, all to herself, enjoying life, but Percy wasn't her main reason.

Just a really good second.

Her second reason wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning his head on her shoulder. "Shall I take your bags, milady?"

Gods above, Percy being gentlemanly in his accent just… he better fucking take her up to his room and let him ravish her. She just shook her head in response. No need to let him know how much she needed him inside of her. "You sure?"

She nodded her head, suddenly tired. It had been a long day, having driven from Lawrenceville to New York then flying to New York and now having taken the coach up to Hanover. And being in Percy's arms was a really good relaxant.

"Sleepy?"

Annabeth once again could only nod in confirmation. She needed sleep. She also hadn't slept well the night before in anticipation of seeing Percy again.

"Hey blokes, I think it's bedtime."

Gwen snorted at Percy's statement. The bus pulled away in front of them, and Annabeth gazed up at the Green and Baker tower and the stars above all else. Her boyfriend's hands on her hips made her tingle with added excitement.

She could get used to this.

"Who made you boss?" Annabeth's host inquired. "Or, more importantly, who made you my mother?"

Percy, being the respectable young Ivy student he was, just stuck his tongue out at Gwen. Annabeth laughed in his arms, which she knew was one of his favorite feelings. His fingers spread out across her stomach.

"No, no, NO!"

Her terrible boyfriend disobeyed her wishes, picking her up by her abs, and throwing her over his shoulder. Her boyfriend's hand moved to rest on her muscular ass, forcing a weird mix of a groan of pleasure and annoyance. Her grip on her duffle left along with any self-preservation she had carried here.

Laughs filled the air beside them as their friends joined in on making fun of her plight.

"I'm stealing you tonight!" Her boyfriend's words came out in a low and rough Scottish accent.

"No, no _Game of Thrones_ references until Sunday, got it?"

Percy just laughed at Gwen's response.

"No one seems to care about the fact that I want to sleep, not be stolen?"

"Nah, welcome to Dartmouth."

"Funny, funny," she deadpanned. Now, however, the only thing she could do was relax — as much as she could while she was uncomfortably placed on her boyfriend's shoulder.

They parted ways with Piper and Rachel with the wheelies, then Jason tailed the four of them, one unwillingly being lugged around like luggage, as they made their way to Percy's dorm. Percy and Jason talked with Dakota, Annabeth tried to talk with Gwen. However, their conversations just kept devolving into laughs on one end and scowls on the other. Still, despite being hung over Percy's back like a sack of potatoes, having to converse upside-down, Annabeth hadn't felt happier in a long time.

The cold air lifted a weight off her chest. Her friends let her laugh. And Percy… he felt so close to her. Their relationship, so long defined by long-distance calls and school-break meet-ups, was shakier than she liked to admit. For once, normalcy felt within reach.

* * *

**Well, it's been a while. Sorry for not updating? Sorta. But this story has been at the very back of my mind for a while now. Just realized I had something I could publish so... here you go! If you're into pure Percabeth though, check out my other story — _Us_. Much angstier. Much, much angstier.**

**Striving to provide Southern Hospitality the world over,**

**LoverBoi (yes, I'm a guy)**


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